


Defining 'Whatever'

by tarajuku



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Bruce is kind of an idiot, Protective Rhodey, Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Rhodey knows what's up, Science Bros, Shovel Talk, Tony and Bruce have trust issues like a very large collection of magazines, pre-Science Boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 10:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tarajuku/pseuds/tarajuku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce might not know what's going on between himself and Tony, but Rhodey isn't an idiot and there are a few things he'd like to make clear to Bruce about the care and keeping of Tony Stark. </p>
<p>(Or, Bruce doesn't realize there's a reason for Rhodey to give him the Shovel Talk until they're already halfway through the conversation.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defining 'Whatever'

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to heyjupiter for reading/critiquing/enabling/cheerleading/etc.

Bruce was just about done manipulating the gigantic holographic molecule JARVIS was projecting for him when, behind him, he heard the door to Tony’s workshop slide open. He tossed the electron he was holding back into its proper position (with absolutely none of the grace and style Tony exhibited with his holograms), told JARVIS to close the file, and turned toward the door, fully expecting to find Pepper carrying a stack of papers for Tony to sign or, if it happened to be dinner time, some kind of take-out. (Bruce suddenly realized he had no idea what _day_ it was, let alone the time.) But he was caught off-guard when he turned around, because the person at the door was definitely not Pepper.

“Bruce, hey,” Colonel Rhodes said warmly, striding toward Bruce with his hand outstretched. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“No, I was just finishing up,” Bruce said, awkwardly accepting the handshake. “But, um, Colonel...” The title felt awkward on Bruce’s lips.

“Call me Jim,” Rhodes said, smiling warmly. “Though if you hang around here long enough you’ll probably start calling me Rhodey too.”

“I’ll stick with Jim,” Bruce said with a shaky laugh.

“Good man. So, where’s Tony?”

“He’s flight testing Mark 48. He just left a few minutes ago so he’ll probably be awhile, in case you...” Bruce had no idea what Rhodes might need to do instead of waiting for Tony and didn’t care as long as it didn’t involve hanging around the workshop making him uncomfortable.

“No, that’s good. I didn’t come down here to talk to Tony, I came down here to talk to you.”

Bruce froze, staring at Rhodes, every muscle in his body tense and that deep, angry rumble rising within him. He should have left as soon as he’d seen Rhodes; Tony might trust him but he was military, and Bruce thought he was pretty justified in distrusting anyone associated with the military. His eyes darted from wall to wall, searching for the escape route that would involve the least amount of bodily or structural damage.

“Bruce? You okay?” Rhodes sounded confused, which only made the tension keeping Bruce cemented in place grow. “Bruce, hey, what’s... _oh_ , shit, Bruce, it’s okay. I’m not gonna--”

“Sell me out to your superiors?” Bruce spat as he focused on Tony's launch tunnel, the hole in the wall Iron Man had flown out of less than half an hour earlier. Hulk would be able to climb up the exit much easier than Rhodes would, especially since he didn’t seem to have his suit handy and, from what Bruce understood, the suits in the workshop were all calibrated specifically for Tony. Still, from the tunnel his options were either to scale the building and hope Ross’s people hadn’t secured the roof yet (unlikely) or jump to a neighboring building or down to the street (too much of a civilian risk for Bruce’s liking). Assuming he’d have any say at all once he let Hulk out, Bruce decided jumping looked like his best option for getting out of there a free man (and, for that matter, a free monster too).

“No, shit, I should’ve known...” Rhodes said, mostly to himself. Bruce took the momentary distraction to take a tentative step toward the escape tunnel, his eyes never leaving Rhodes.

“Wait, Bruce,” Rhodes held up both hands, as though that would stop Bruce from fleeing, and looked from Bruce’s current position to the tunnel and then back to Bruce. “I’m not here to hurt you or turn you in or anything like that. I promise. I’m here as Tony’s friend, okay? I’m Rhodey right now, not Lt. Col. Rhodes. I just want to talk to you, that's all.”

Bruce relaxed enough to cross his arms over his chest. He wanted to believe Rhodes, because Tony trusted Rhodes and Bruce would like to think Tony wouldn’t trust the kind of people who would throw Bruce in a cage the first chance they got. But Tony had known Rhodes a whole lot longer than he’d known Bruce, and what’s to say Tony wasn’t in on this too.

“Talk about what?” Bruce asked quickly, because the idea that Tony might be part of some plan with Rhodes and Ross to capture him was absolutely too much for Bruce to handle and, as there really wasn’t any other way Bruce could think of for Rhodes to pull this off in Tony’s own home, Bruce reluctantly decided to take Rhodes at his word, at least for the moment.

“About Tony. And...you.” Rhodes took his time as he spoke, still watching Bruce.

“Me and Tony?” Bruce wasn’t much more comfortable with the idea of this conversation than he was with the fight-and/or-flight situation he’d assumed was inevitable just moments ago. He had no idea where Rhodes was going with this and, considering _he_ wasn’t even sure what kind of relationship he and Tony had (and he meant relationship in the broadest sense, two people who know each other, because he didn’t know how to classify himself and Tony beyond that), he had no intention of spending the afternoon (evening? morning?) discussing his feelings with Rhodes.

“Yeah,” Rhodes said, more relaxed now, opening two folding chairs Bruce didn’t even know were stashed behind those bookshelves and motioning for Bruce to join him. “C’mon, sit.”

Bruce hesitated for a moment, his guard still heightened, but curiosity got the better of him and he sat down cautiously. He looked at Rhodes but quickly averted his eyes when he saw that Rhodes, chair positioned directly across from him, was looking straight into his eyes.

“Me and Tony,” Bruce repeated for lack of anything more constructive to contribute to this conversation he’d rather not be having at all.

“You and Tony and whatever thing you two have going on.”

Bruce’s heart started racing and he immediately focused on his breathing, keeping himself centered while he tried to make it very, very clear to the Other Guy exactly how absolutely terrible a time it would be to lose control.

“What thing?” Bruce choked out amid his careful breaths. He wasn’t really sure he wanted to hear Rhodes’ answer.

“I don’t know what it is,” Rhodes said. “But it’s definitely a thing. Lab buddies, friends...whatever, you and Tony are something and I want to talk about it with you.” Bruce hadn’t missed the way Rhodes paused between “friends” and “whatever” as though he expected Bruce to fill in the blank with a label for a thing he didn’t know how to define (but which he was beginning to suspect might lean more toward the “whatever” side of that scale).

“Okay,” Bruce agreed lamely, because what else was he supposed to say? “It’s just, I don’t know what it is either. This thing we’re supposed to have, me and Tony. I never really thought about us like that...” Tony always said Bruce was a terrible liar but he hoped against hope Rhodes wouldn’t notice or at least wouldn't call him out for it.

“Whatever we call it isn’t important right now,” Rhodes said, still watching Bruce closely.

“Look, Bruce, I don’t know what your intentions are with Tony,” Rhodes said plainly, then paused, probably to gauge Bruce's reaction. Bruce wasn’t completely sure what Rhodes was getting at but he had an idea and, suddenly, he realized Rhodes might not be totally wrong. Bruce had honestly never thought about it past a purely conceptual level before.

“My--”

“Intentions, goals, motives, whatever,” Rhodes interrupted Bruce. Smart move, as whatever response might come out of Bruce's mouth would be no more constructive than any of the other things he’d said so far. “I don’t know what this all means to you, but I have a pretty good idea what it means to Tony, and that’s why I’m here.”

Bruce briefly found himself nostalgic for that long lost time when he thought Rhodes had come down here to capture him.

“What did Tony tell you?” Bruce asked, because if he was going to be stuck in this conversation he might as well try to find out what at least _one_ of them was thinking.

“He didn’t,” Rhodes said. Then he smiled. “Bruce, I’ve known Tony a long time. Tony is incredibly gifted at a ridiculous number of things, but when it comes to emotional expression? He’s...”

“Basically transparent?” Bruce offered.

“Transparent, yeah, that’s good,” Rhodes laughed. “I was gonna say ‘totally obvious.’ You get the point. It’s never that hard to figure out how he feels. It can be damn near impossible to figure out _why_ sometimes, but, lucky for us, this isn’t one of those situations. Like I said, I’ve known the man forever, and the way he talks about you? Or how he is when he’s with you? I’ve never seen him let anyone in so quickly.”

Bruce knew Rhodes was staring at him again, waiting for a response, but Bruce was coming up empty. He knew Tony liked spending time with him and he guessed he’d noticed how Tony’s entire demeanor changed whenever he came into a room and saw that Bruce was there, but...he’s Tony Stark. He has nearly as much charisma as he has money and he’d made an art out of expressing it. Not once had Bruce thought Tony treated him any differently than anyone else he liked, or was trying to impress (and even Bruce knew Tony did sometimes try to impress him, but Bruce also knew that Tony was surprisingly desperate for approval and assumed Tony had latched onto him because he was more of an intellectual peer than anyone else Tony had access to). So while part of him wanted very badly to believe Rhodes (even though believing Rhodes would make him even more confused about the feelings he apparently had for Tony), there was too much room for interpretation. 

“Let me in?” Bruce finally managed. “Into what? His workshop?”

“No no no,” Rhodes shook his head, laughing. “Let you _in_ ,” he stressed, laying his hand flat on his chest. “Tony doesn’t trust people. He never has, really, but he’s only gotten worse with age. As long as I’ve known him, he doesn’t trust anyone. Until he does. And then, when he trusts you, he _trusts_ you, with everything. That’s just how it works with Tony. And he doesn’t trust a lot of people. I’m not sure if you figured that out yet.” Bruce nodded, because of course he’d noticed that Tony has his People, the ones he depends on, and the rest of the world could, in Tony’s words, fuck right off, thanks.

“I can count on one hand the number of people Tony Stark trusts. Pepper,” and Rhodes counted off one finger to illustrate. “Happy. Me.” He paused, looking at Bruce through the three fingers he held up a few inches from his face. “Three people. Three people he's known for years, hell, for decades.”

“Pretty exclusive club,” Bruce laughed nervously, because he had an idea where Rhodes was going with this.

“Yeah,” Rhodes agreed, lowering his hand. “And after Obadiah, the three of us figured we were it, because how could Tony ever trust someone again, let someone else in that close, after Obadiah.” Bruce nodded. He hadn’t heard everything about Obadiah Stane but what he did know was enough to give even the most well-adjusted of people lifetimes of trust issues, let alone Tony.

“But he did let someone else in. He let you in. Which isn’t so remarkable on its own, we assumed he wouldn’t but if he did...someone like you would make sense. What’s remarkable is how _quickly_ you went from someone he didn’t trust to someone he trusted. I asked him about it, you know. I asked him why he trusted you so quickly. I assumed it was because you saved his life. But Bruce, do you know what he told me?”

“What?” 

“He said, ‘Rhodey, I trusted Bruce the second I met him. It never occurred to me not to.’ Bruce, I thought he’d finally lost his damn mind. Nothing against you, but it took him years with the rest of us, even back then,” Rhodes looked astonished, even now. Bruce had no idea how to respond so he let the words hang between them while he thought about what they meant. 

He had a feeling Tony had trusted him quickly but he'd had no idea what that meant. Hearing how long it had been since anyone else... A shiver ran down his spine as Bruce realized, suddenly, that he’d done exactly the same thing, hadn’t he? How long had he been running, hiding, not letting himself trust a soul? How many People did Bruce have? Tony at least had three; Bruce had one. Nearly a decade, every corner of the globe, and there was only one person he knew he could trust. And how long had he known Betty before he’d needed to rely on her, to test that trust? But Bruce realized now that he’d trusted Tony, just as Tony had trusted him, the moment they’d met. He’d never thought to question it - it was _Tony_. Why wouldn’t he trust Tony Stark?

(The Bruce Banner of a year ago would easily have given him a list of all the very legitimate reasons why he shouldn't trust Tony Stark but the Bruce of today couldn't think of a single one.)

Without realizing it, Bruce had let down his guard for Tony just as Tony did the same for Bruce. Until then, neither had let anyone new get too close for years but neither hesitated when, unexpectedly, instantly, they realized they could trust each other.

What did that mean? Bruce was a scientist, used to depending on hard data and facts, but there were times when he couldn’t ignore less concrete things, coincidences and things with meanings coded nowhere in their molecular structure. Things like this, these two incredibly unlikely events happening in tandem; possibly a coincidence, of course, but the odds of it...

“Bruce? You okay?” Rhodes leaned in closer to Bruce which made Bruce jump, startled out of his thoughts, and he wondered how long he’d been spaced out.

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Bruce muttered. “I didn’t realize I was so...tired?” He still didn’t know what time it was and hoped it was an appropriate time of day to be tired (though, Rhodes was Tony’s friend, Bruce didn’t think anyone’s odd sleep schedule would faze him in the slightest).

“It is getting pretty late,” Rhodes agreed, glancing at his watch. Bruce counted that as a success - he might not actually know what time it was but he did know it was nighttime!

“So...why are you telling me all this?” Bruce asked simply, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say that wouldn’t involve his own feelings and Rhodes was not one of Bruce’s People.

“Because he’s crazy about you,” Rhodes said. “I don’t know if he’s crazy about you as a friend or as...more.” Rhodes was careful and watched Bruce closely as though he expected Bruce to lose it at the implication he might be the slightest bit queer. He gave Rhodes a small nod to let him know it was okay, he understood. 

“But you mean a lot to him and I don’t want to see him get hurt. I want to make sure you know that, and also that I will track you down and personally make your life a living hell if you hurt him.”

Bruce couldn’t hold back the low, dark laugh he emitted, but he looked down at his hands in his lap hoping to hide the cynical grin he felt spreading across his face. He wasn’t sure what was more entertaining - the idea that Rhodes thought this talk, or any talk, would be enough to stop him from hurting anyone or the idea that Rhodes thought there was a single thing he could do to make Bruce’s life more of a living hell than the one he’d lived every day since the accident.

“Hey,” Rhodes was leaning toward Bruce again, and he even put his hand gently on Bruce’s shoulder (apparently someone besides Pepper believed Tony’s constant insistence that Bruce wasn’t dangerous). “I’m not talking about the Other Guy. I’m talking about you, Bruce Banner.” Bruce picked his head up at that and looked at Rhodes. Rhodes let go of Bruce and leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t think I’m the one you need to worry about," and Bruce knew it was a lie but he desperately wanted this conversation to be over and he knew from experience that it was much easier and much quicker to talk about the potential for disaster posed by the Other Guy than by himself.

“I’m not worried about the Hulk. When it comes to things that try to physically destroy him, Tony can more than hold his own. Seems like he goes out of his way to find those things, actually, but he knows what he’s doing. No, I’m talking about emotions and feelings and all those things Tony is awful with. He’ll kill me if he knows I’m telling you this - oh yeah, hey, JARVIS, keep this on the DL, okay?” Rhodes said, turning his head to where Bruce knew one of JARVIS’ monitors was installed.

“As always, Colonel.”

“Thanks. Anyway. Tony isn’t great with the whole feelings thing and, you probably got this already, Tony has issues. A lot of issues. We’ll be here all night if I try to list them all, but most relevant here? He needs approval, he feeds on approval, and he’ll do just about anything to get it.”

“Like the nuke,” Bruce muttered, because he’d watched the footage, listened to the com feed afterwards, and the desperation in Tony’s voice at the end of it wasn’t something Bruce would forget, maybe not ever.

“Exactly. He thinks he's always got something to prove, he's gotta prove himself worthy of whatever he's focused on, and he can get into a really bad place over it, getting drunk and pulling a bunch of stupid, reckless shit, and you'll ask yourself if it's worth it, watching him destroy himself like that, getting sucked into his tornado of bullshit. But it's worth it, at least it's always been worth it for me, because it's _Tony_. He's gonna need you, I'm pretty sure he already does, and you've gotta be there for him when he does. And I’m not saying don’t get mad at him, because I love Tony but he can be a complete pain in the ass and sometimes he needs someone to put him in his place, but just be...careful with it. With him.” Rhodes looked at Bruce again, and Bruce figured he was trying to assess how much of what he’d just told him was news. Bruce nodded, because not a word of it was.

“Oh, and he drinks too much. But I’m pretty sure you figured that one out for yourself.” Bruce couldn’t help rolling his eyes as he nodded in agreement.

“So yeah, I’m not talking about the Hulk, because Tony can deal with smashing. I’m talking about Bruce Banner, Bruce Banner who never commits to a goddamn thing, Bruce Banner who defines himself by how much he hates himself. Bruce Banner who runs and runs and hides himself away where he thinks he’ll never be found.” Bruce was the one leaning forward now, completely human anger clouding his thoughts, and he wasn’t sure if he was mad because of what Rhodes was accusing him of or if because every bit of it was true. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bruce lied, seething.

“I’ve heard all about you,” Rhodes said, leaning slightly toward Bruce and sounding angry.

“From Ross?” Bruce snapped.

“No, not from Ross. From Tony, okay? And Pepper, and Fury briefed me before I came out to help with those zombie robot things a few months back,” Rhodes answered defensively. Bruce didn’t respond, instead staring at Rhodes, trying to decide whether or not he believed him about his sources of information.

“And, okay, maybe Tony let me see your SHIELD file, but not without listening to his commentary on the whole thing and mostly I agree with his assessment.”

“Mostly,” Bruce growled. He needed to have the personal-information-is-personal talk with Tony. Again.

“Bruce, look,” Rhodes sighed. “I know you have issues with the military and, honestly, I don’t blame you after what you’ve been through. But I’m not Ross, okay? I don’t answer to him. I’ve only met him a handful of times and Bruce? The man is a complete jackass. I’m not just saying that because of what he did to you, either. He is a world-class piece of shit and he has no business calling himself an Army man.” Seeing how the idea of Ross made Rhodes’ fists clench and jaw tighten helped Bruce relax a bit.

“I won’t argue with you on that.”

“Only a fool would,” Rhodes smiled. “But, back to my point, I’ve heard about you from more reliable sources than Ross, and I’ve met you enough to have a good idea about some things. And I worry, okay, about Tony, because he plays cocky and tough but that’s not who he is. And yeah, he can be an obnoxious, frustrating, crazy son of a bitch sometimes, hell, even most of the time, but he needs someone who’s gonna stick around. Because he’s worth it, even if he doesn’t believe it himself.” Rhodes was speaking quickly and Bruce wasn’t sure if he wanted this to be over as much as Bruce did or if he was worried Tony might come back before they were done. Either way, Bruce appreciated it.

“I care about him too,” Bruce said, fully aware there weren’t many things he could say that would sound more awkward but unable to think of anything else. “And, trust me, I have no plans to hurt him. I just don’t know what kind of...relationship...thing...we might...”

“Doesn’t matter,” Rhodes said, cutting Bruce off to Bruce’s relief. “I’ve got my theory but I’m keeping that to myself. Even if it’s just friends...Tony doesn’t have a lot of those, and he puts so much into them, those relationships, it doesn’t make much difference whether it’s romantic or not. Tony’s all in. That’s just how he works. When he decides to do something, he _does_ it. Relationships included. Same rules apply.” Bruce nodded but couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “What’s so funny?” Rhodes asked, but he wasn’t angry.

“Nothing, just...you’ve had this talk a lot, huh?”

“No,” Rhodes said seriously. “Only once.”

“Once?” 

“Pepper,” Rhodes smiled. “She’s the only one I ever trusted enough to listen. Until now.”

“Oh,” Bruce muttered, understanding the significance of the number and now more unsure than ever under the weight of it. “Um...thanks, I guess?”

“Don’t mention it,” Rhodes said, grinning. They both stood up and Rhodes tucked both chairs back where he’d found them before Bruce had a chance to help. “And don’t tell Tony, he’ll kill us both.”

“I’d like to see him try,” Bruce said lightly, shaking Rhodes’ hand and watching him walk toward the door.

“Good night, Bruce. Get some rest. And when Tony comes back try and get him to sleep, even just a little bit. Pepper says you’ve got better luck with that than the rest of us.” 

“I’ll try my best,” Bruce said, and Rhodes turned his head around to wink at Bruce, the shit-eating grin Tony was so fond of mirrored on his oldest friend’s face. Bruce knew he was blushing and the triumphant look on Rhodes’ face was doing nothing to help him stop.

“Good night, Rhodey!” Bruce yelled as Rhodes opened the door, and he responded to the middle finger Rhodes held up with a wide grin of his own. Both men laughed as Rhodes left the room and Bruce immediately settled himself on the couch in the corner. His tablet was within reach but he didn’t even turn it on, instead thinking about what had just happened. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to any of it, especially the part when Rhodes said Tony was crazy about Bruce. Bruce supposed he could say the same for himself, that he was crazy about Tony; now he just needed to work on defining what they meant by ‘crazy,’ and that depended on whether Tony was thinking about Bruce the same way Bruce realized he might be thinking about Tony. Whatever way that was. 

Before he could think himself into insanity, Bruce grabbed his tablet, made himself more comfortable on the couch, and worked on some revisions to the formulas he’d set earlier that day while he waited for Tony to get back.

Tony flew back in about an hour later, and this time Bruce couldn’t overlook the way Tony’s eyes lit up when he spied Bruce in the corner or the way Tony seemed to go out of his way to touch Bruce, ‘accidentally’ brushing up against him or bumping into him whenever he could. It made Bruce smile and, as he let Tony drag him upstairs by the arm in search of food, Bruce allowed himself to believe they could actually be something more than “whatever.”


End file.
